Review: Lunatic, Lover, Poet More Affordable Than Many On Randolph Row

When Tom Powers last worked on Randolph Street, he was general manager and sommelier at the late, great Marche. Back then, and I'm talking early '90s, Randolph Street was a comparative restaurant wasteland. There was the pioneering Vivo, Marche (both properties owned by the redoubtable Jerry Kleiner, Howard Davis and Dan Krasny), and ... that was about it.

The neighborhood wasn't exactly a destination.

"We couldn't get cabs," Powers said. "In many cases, cabs would drop people off on the east side of the (Dan Ryan) expressway, and they'd have to walk."

Now, of course, Randolph Street, from Jefferson Street west to Loomis Street, is, in terms of volume and quality, the most impressive restaurant row in the city. And Powers, who took a hiatus from the restaurant game in 2006, is back, with 3-month-old The Lunatic, The Lover & The Poet, a wine bar and restaurant just east of Halsted Street in a 130-year-old building tucked behind what Powers calls "the world's ugliest tree."

Find out more about this relatively affordable wine-centric restaurant.